Transforming the Soul of Education: Sustainability at the Center of Teaching and Learning in Secondary Schools

Abstract

Humanity is facing problems on a scale never before encountered. This dissertation traces the roots of modern culture's destructive relationship to the planet with its habits of over-consumption and exceeding the limits of the planet's ecological systems. Educational institutions are embedded in and replicate an unsustainable culture.As educational leaders, we need to challenge a system that is morally and ecologically bankrupt while providing a path toward sustainability at the center of teaching and learning. Using a narrative scholarship approach and theoretical frameworks drawn from ecological thinking and place-based learning, this dissertation provides models for transforming secondary education. While critiquing the current model of high school, this dissertation argues that education for sustainability needs to be not only about curriculum change, but a change in the way we think about schooling, the buildings in which we educate, the food we provide and the relationships between schools and the communities in which they exist. It directly addresses social studies curriculum and offers a way of examining career pathways through the lens of education for sustainability.ii Acknowledgments

A Correlation Analysis of Education for Sustainable Development in Pre and Post Covid Scenarios

“…This question sought to know what perception students had about the impact of their habits. Wals (2012) developed this concept from UNESCO (2018) and Gardner (2017) focused on teenagers while Kane (2011) studied its emotional aspect.…”

El impacto ambiental: un despertar ético valioso para la educación

“…Esta desconexión, tan patente en el presente urbano, dificulta la reconversión hacia un modo de ser más natural. Por un lado, como se ha visto, porque oculta la relación entre el ser y la conducta humana, y el medio material que la sostiene y su valor intrínseco; por otro, porque pone trabas al deseo de mejorar las cosas, pues difícilmente se puede dejar de vivir de la noche a la mañana en el seno de una sociedad impactante per se, ya construida, donde hasta la educación está embebida y reproduce la cultura insostenible (Kane, 2011).…”